Today, we'll check in on a bunch of different folks – including the ones who departed Earth for the Fleed System! Also, we bring a certain machine into battle!

Expansion Scenario Chapter 3 – Darkness Gathers! Final Struggle On The Galaxy's Far Side!

Five days had passed since the awakening of the Elder Thing, and every surviving member of the Antarctic expedition chafed under the watch of the strange, telepathic star-headed creature. It forbade them from gathering any more samples from the rock, threatening them with a painful death. Instead, it began directing them to dig and blast through rock in a quest for something that it would refuse to discuss, simply calling the inquirer a "stupid ape" or some other insult.

As much as the scientists loathed being used as its slaves, none of them could hope to oppose it – the Elder Thing's strong yet flexible hide resisted all of their available firearms, and none could get close enough to cut it with the miniature beam tools without meeting a violent death at its five powerful arms. There had been talk of a mass attack against it, but Misato insisted that they go along with the creature's wishes for now – perhaps their work would reveal even more astounding things. Wasn't discovery the reason for their expedition? Besides, it was the least they could do for killing its friends.

It was from this thought that Misato was interrupted when there was a great shouting following a dynamite blast. She rushed over to see what had been unveiled, only to find that the Elder Thing had blocked the newly created cave entrance...almost as if it already knew what was inside.

But as Nerv's director approached, the creature turned to her.

You, it said. Come with me. Bring one of your electric lights – I know you apes cannot perceive things in darkness. Misato looked at her subordinates warily. After a few moments, one of them handed her a flashlight.

"Stay here," she ordered, "and don't do anything that would anger our friend here." With that, she turned to follow the Elder Thing into the hole. It turned out to be a tunnel that was just a little too low for the eight-foot-tall creature to stand fully upright, so it bent its body forward, using the numerous cilia on the tips of its five-pointed head to perceive the way forward.

For a while, neither human nor Elder Thing spoke to one another as they went deeper and deeper into the tunnel. Eventually, Misato felt the need to speak up.

"Why did you choose me to come with you?" she asked.

I cannot place why, the Elder Thing replied, but you strike me as being a little closer to my kind than the rest of your shambling ilk. Considering that my fellows are all dead, you were simply the most suitable thing to serve as my company.

After a few more minutes of walking, the tunnel ended in an archway approximately six feet wide and ten feet high - the creature straightened to its full height once again as it stepped inside.

When Misato followed, she was instantly awe-struck, and also a little horrified, though the feeling lessened only slightly as she followed the Elder Thing across a large stone bridge. As she turned her flashlight this way and that, it allowed her to catch glimpses of strange formations, including cones of every sort of irregularity and disproportion, shafts with odd bulbous enlargements, broken columns in curious groups, and five-pointed or five-ridged arrangements that one could easily find grotesque. It was if she was in the middle of a fever-induced nightmare, save for the fact that nothing else seemed to stir in this cavernous chamber except her and the alien creature that had chosen her for company.

"Incredible..." she muttered. "Is this some sort of city?" As if in answer, the Elder Thing suddenly whirled back toward her, its five eyes all glaring at her.

Tell me ape-woman, it said frantically; How long was I hibernating?!

"Th-the rock we found you and your fellows in was easily eighty million years old," she stammered, fearing it would lash out at her, "years being..."

Eighty million solar orbits, the creature said, its tone somber. It then turned around and let out a series of low piping sounds into the empty city...sounds that Misato somehow recognized as those of grief.

Poor thing, she thought as she listened to the Elder Thing's piping cries. To have fallen asleep before the dinosaurs ever went extinct, only to wake up on a dissecting table as strange bipeds are about to carve it up as they did its friends. Now it finds that its home is a ruin.

Misato swallowed nervously as she approached the grieving creature and did the only thing she could think of: give it a hug. As she wrapped her arms around the Elder Things's barrel-like body, its piping stopped abruptly, and it pushed her away.

Keep your appendages to yourself, ape-woman, it said angrily; You have some nerve to touch me at a moment like this!

"It's what we humans call a 'hug'," Misato replied. "It's something we humans do to comfort one another when we're sad...and you sounded sad." The Elder Thing wriggled its cilia as if it was trying to process a concept entirely new to it. Finally, it replied.

Perhaps you apes aren't the buffoons I made you out to be, it said, almost as if it couldn't fully believe the words it was saying. Seeing that she had won some more of the Elder Thing's confidence, Misato decided to press a little more.

"I'd like to know your name, if you have one," the director of Nerv said. "Your people must have had ways to quickly identify one another." Without a moment's hesitation, the Elder Thing let out a rapid series of piping, trilling, buzzing and whistling noises.

"That's your name?" Misato said, knowing she would never be able to replicate it without looking or sounding ridiculous – to the best of her ability, it came across as 'Vree-fwiee-woo-heheal-eeee-waaaa-giiiii-kzzzzz-tii'.

I have also answered to this, the creature said, and it made a simple wolf whistle, immediately making Misato snicker.

"How about I just call you 'Vree-woo'?" she suggested. "It's a lot easier for me to remember." The Elder Thing tilted its starfish-shaped head.

You may call me 'Vree' for the sake of expediting communication, the creature saidas it turned to continue across the bridge.

"So, what are your plans, Vree?" Misato asked as she followed the Elder Thing across the bridge.

You and I will both learn what has happened here, Vree replied. Hopefully my people remained the meticulous record-keepers that I remember them being before I began hibernating...

Cobray entered the dining hall on a Saturday morning, looking rather disheveled and baggy-eyed, to find Janus, Kurou and Al were sitting at the table enjoying some breakfast from what seemed to be a buffet, which was arranged on a table on one wall. The assortment was not unlike those available in many common motels, although some of the ingredients were of a higher quality. One of the house's staff stood off to the side.

"Morning..." Cobray grunted.

"Good morning, Cobray!" Al chirped.

"You look like you could use some coffee, pal," Kurou said amicably.

"What's that racket outside?" the silver-haired student said as he sat down in a chair opposite Kurou.

"Tara's birds," Janus said. "Why do you ask?"

"I was up late doing some research," Cobray said, "And just as I was about to get some shut-eye, they started screaming."

"Your fault for not getting to bed at a reasonable hour," Al said with a smirk.

"They're just saying 'good morning' to each other," Janus said. "You can get coffee from the pot on the far end there." With that, he stood up and walked toward the nearby window, which looked out on a lovely garden and what appeared to be a large aviary filled with nine parrots, all colored like a fiery sunset.

The things I do to keep up my disguise, Cobray thought as he poured himself the last of the coffee from the pot. I didn't come to this world with Dis Astranagant just to go through university. I'm the Time Diver, damn it! As soon as he laid the pot down, the staff member picked it up and left the room, undoubtedly to refill it.

"Why are you opening the window?" Al asked as the young man did. "And where's Tara?" Janus said nothing, but simply stood back. Within moments, one of the birds opened up a miniature Threshold, and they all dove into it, reappearing just outside the cage. A moment later, eight of the birds swooped into the dining room and quickly settled in different places in the chamber – three of them landed on Janus', Kurou's and Al's heads respectively, two landed on the back of an empty chair, one perched on Janus' shoulder, another landed on a candlestick hanging on the wall, and the eighth flew up into the rafters, away from the table.

"Another one of the perks of living at Zifell Manor," Janus said as he gave some head scratches to a parrot that had landed on his shoulder; "...fancy Saturday breakfast with parrots!"

Or with young caelceti in bird form, as the case may be, Kurou thought, somehow recognizing the birds for what they truly were.

"You don't keep them in cages?" Cobray exclaimed.

"They sleep in an aviary out back," Janus replied, "but they can come and go as they please."

"Thankfully, they're smart enough t' do their business outside," the staff member said, her voice a Scotch-Irish accent. "Otherwise we'd be spendin' our days cleanin' up after 'em."

"Has Tara named them?" Kurou asked. Janus stroked his chin for a bit as he tried to remember which bird was which, while Al frantically tried to get the bird playing with her hair to stop.

"I think that's Seolla and Arado on the empty chair," he said, pointing to the birds as he said their names; "Ibis is here on my shoulder; shy little Mai's up in the rafters; grumpy Rai is preening himself on that candlestick over there; the one that landed on your head is Aya; that's Yuuki making a nest in Al's hair; Touma is the sweet boy on MY head...aaaand..."

As if on cue, a ninth bird swooped in, landed on Cobray's head and let out a loud screech, nearly making him spill his coffee.

"...Sanger's the loud boy who's always late to the party," Janus said. A moment later, Cobray suddenly realized something:

Those names, he thought. they were people in the Alpha Numbers...did Tara actually meet them, or is it just coincidence that she chose the names?

But he didn't get much time to think on this as Tara came into the room, a look of disgust on her face as she shook her head while looking at her smartphone.

"Ugh," she groaned; "This is getting ridiculous!"

"What is?" Cobray asked. "Good morning, by the way."

"It may be a good morning for us," Tara replied, "but for the rest of the world, it's still madness!" She thrust the phone at Dis Astranagant's pilot. It was a news feed, linking to various articles detailing recent events as covered by the world's media outlets.

"What?" the Time Diver asked as he glanced at the headlines.

"What does it look like?" Tara said. "More terrorist attacks and cult killings, and not just on Earth!" She put her phone away and sat down next to Janus, laying her head on the table. Seeing her distress, he gave her a gentle head rub.

"Tara, we knew that changing people's minds was going to be the hard part," he said gently. "You fought for three years to help stabilize the former Areas."

"I know," the Knight said, "but I guess I was expecting it would happen sooner..."

Kaguya Sumeragi shared Tara's frustration, and was venting it to Rakshata Chalwa and Diethard Reid - as well as Rondo Mina Sahaku, who was serving as Orb's representative in the UFN.

"We knew what we were doing would trigger some chaos," she said as she laid down a report about all of the madness happening across the Earth Sphere, "but this is almost too much. Hope is supposed to bring people together, not tear them apart!"

"It's simply human nature at work, Chairwoman," Mina Sahaku said. "The evils that DREAM fought against - lust for power, wealth and status...they never went away. Nor did the fear of losing that power, wealth and status."

"But that's no excuse for the kind of horrible behavior that we've been seeing," Kaguya said, flipping back to a section of the report and handing it to Mina; "And it's not just those who lost power who are doing this." The information in question was a story of turmoil in East Africa – one of tribal warlords executing workers from the World Humanitarian Association, the UFN group for providing aid to those in need.

"Such a shame," Mina said, shaking her head sadly.

"I know," Kaguya said. "It's like some people are becoming little more than wild animals again."

"We always were just animals, really," Rakshata said, flicking some burnt-out tobacco off her cigarette.

"But DREAM fought against almighty forces bent on our destruction for the right to continue existing," the Chairwoman said. "And not just in the Earth Sphere! You all remember Atik Yomin, don't you?!"

"Of course we haven't," Mina said.

"But what we did is no different from how a cornered animal fights against its would-be predator," Diethard said; "Surely, these brutes see themselves as we once did – a plucky band of freedom fighters working to overthrow a tyrannical regime, and that we are almighty forces bent on their destruction."

"In every way?" Kaguya said.

"In every way," the former journalist said; "I merely state facts, Chairwoman. I don't relish this one bit." This made the young leader of the UFN Council sigh as despair began to fill her.

"So all we fought for," she said, "peace, justice and freedom for everyone..."

"They are words that have been used for wicked causes plenty of times in history," Mina said grimly; "Tell me...how many families have lost loved ones who fought against your crusade of peace, justice and freedom?"

"We tried to avoid killing as much as possible," the girl said, "both soldiers and civilians. You know that!"

"That may be," Mina said with a nod, "but then I ask you - how many more were maimed? How many lost limbs, suffered injures that may never heal? How many are suffering so much that..."

"Enough!" Kaguya cried as she stood up. "You don't think that bothers me?! Don't you understand that I wish we could have gotten our freedom without having to tear down the old system, or harming the otherwise good people who defended it?!"

"We certainly believe you," Rakshata said, "but tell that to the people who have lost everything because of our victory three years ago."

"However, I believe that something or someone is actively stoking the fires of chaos," Diethard said. "It seems that this unknown force has convinced those in despair that the way of madness is the way to get back what they've lost."

"What makes you think that, Diethard?" Kaguya asked.

"The conquered will not rise up unless someone gives them a glimmer of hope that they can rise once more to the status that the conqueror took from them, or higher," the former journalist replied. "DREAM did just that three years ago."

"I see," the girl said with a nod. "But this hope isn't hope at all. It's madness."

"And you're right back to where you were a few minutes ago," Mina said. "This is not madness – just the dark side of human nature rearing its ugly head."

"So what do we do?" Kaguya then asked. "That's the question I have for all of you." The assembled individuals all began to ponder...

On the other side of the galaxy, it seemed like the entire Vega Empire was undergoing a civil war much like Britannia had when Euphemia ascended – the Vegans who supported the old emperor and his policies had risen up against Rubina. On Boazan, the populace was split on who they supported - the hornless common folk supported Kentaro Go – or rather, Prince La Gour - who had accompanied his sons and their friends to his home world. The majority of the nobles, meanwhile, cast their lot with Zu Zambajil.

Even with the combined power of Grendizer, Voltes V, Combattler V and Godor, the three power-hungry minions of Emperor Vega continued to resist. It certainly didn't help those on Rubina's side that the oppressive trio's forces had all of the surviving Campbellian Slave Monsters at their command, while half of the remaining Boazanian Battle Beasts and Vegan Saucer Beasts were also on their side.

But their situation was getting less and less favorable by the day – such was the reason they now assembled in Zu Zambajil's castle on Boazan.

Self-proclaimed "Empress" Janera, a Campbellian, was tall and lovely in appearance by human standards, with pale skin, a dainty nose, plump lips and smooth hands. But the rest of her was covered in a blue robe with a purple cloth that draped down from the golden crown on her head and another that was worn over her torso. However, she had cruel eyes like a snake's, while an actual living serpent was constantly wrapped around her, its head hanging from her left arm, which also held a staff with a single staring eye.

General Gandal, a Vegan, was a well-built man with a light blue face with a prominent chin, and sporting a green-blue bodysuit with spike-like protrusions on the elbows and knees, while a purple cape hung over his shoulders. His face seemed to be permanently twisted into a grim scowl.

Zu Zambajil, a Boazanian noble, was a blond, somewhat frumpy horned man with fancy blue clothing, too much jewelry and a well-maintained mustache and beard. His expression seemed to betray his comparative weakness in contrast to his two allies, at least in personal ability. He knew that his standing with the two was only because he had the most resources at his disposal.

"Blast that Duke Fleed and Prince Heinel," Zambajil said. "Every passing day those two and the rest of Rubina's forces push us further and further back. At this rate, they'll be on our doorsteps within a Fleedian month!"

"It's not just the power of their machines," Gandal said. "My liege's brat has riled up the peasants, promising them 'freedom' and 'self-rule' if they fight alongside her. Uprisings occur daily on all of our worlds, and our forces are stretching themselves thin trying to put them down."

"Why do you suppose that is, General?" Zambajil asked snidely.

"Simple - it's because YOU waste valuable resources on keeping yourself and your court looking pretty," Gandal shot back. "You should be working on supplying our troops with equipment and reinforcements!"

"You fools don't understand the importance of keeping an image up," the Boazanian noble said; "It makes the rabble think that we are invincible, that our power is such that crushing them will be the easiest thing in the universe, and that..."

"Image?! What image?!" the Vegan general snarled; "They KNOW that we are struggling! I came here after my forces were driven out of Vega's capital city!" Janera sipped her drink quietly, though her eyebrows knitted a bit.

"So?" Zambajil said haughtily. "You can just take it back."

"Have you already forgotten that they have Grendizer, your 'savior' Godor AND two machines powered by Super Electromagnetism on their side," Gandal ranted, pounding the table; "An energy that, may I remind you, YOUR brother first discovered and harnessed?!"

"Don't blame me for that!" Zambajil exclaimed; "Besides, if it wasn't for my brilliant application of my brother's findings, Vega would still be completely uninhabitable! And if I wasn't generously providing you with resources, you hornless lunkbrain, we'd be..."

"Would you two be QUIET?!" Janera suddenly shouted, silencing the two arguing men. Once she knew she had their attention, the Campbellian began to talk in a more civilized tone.

"The REAL reason we're being pushed back is because we are unable to present a truly united front," she explained. "You two have spent too much time trying to steal glory from each other, while I have selflessly provided you both with all of my Slave Monsters."

"Are you suggesting you're more fit to lead than us, woman?!" Zambajil said angrily.

"I meant only what I said," Janera replied, stroking the snake on her arm; "We are not united in our cause. Grendizer, Combattler V and Voltes V serve not just as the heart of Rubina's forces, but as banners for the groundlings to rally behind."

"And you would provide us such a banner, 'Empress'?" Gandal sneered. The woman smirked.

"As matter of fact," she answered, "I can, and I shall. When our new rallying point appears, it will usher in a new age for this system..."

Letting out a groan, C.C. started to awaken. Her eyelids fluttered a bit before she finally gathered the strength to sit up. She was in bed – a simple cot with a white sheet. The room she was in seemed to be made of sandstone and granite. She could hear the twittering of birds outside, and the air was pleasantly cool. In spite of her hazy state of mind, a quick glance out the window showed that it was night time.

Sitting near the bed in a double-lotus position was a woman with tan skin, dark-green hair and a small red dot on her forehead. Her eyes were closed, and she wore clothes that the witch recognized as a variant of traditional garb worn in India. When the woman heard C.C. sit up, she opened her eyes, revealing them to be pale green.

"Ah, you're finally awake," the woman said pleasantly as she uncrossed her legs and stood up; "I was beginning to wonder if you would ever wake up."

"Wh...where..." C.C. muttered as she tried to get out of bed, only to be gently pushed back down.

"You've been out for a few days now," the woman said. "Try to rest a little more."

"Lel...Lelouch..." the witch said as she started to come out of her haze; "Where is...Lelouch?"

"Who? Is it the young man we found you with?" the woman said. "So that's his name."

The witch's eyes widened a bit as anxious hope filled her.

"Is he..." she gasped.

"He's quite well," the woman said, "though we are puzzled as to what happened to him. Perhaps you can answer that for us, once you're better rested." But suddenly, a familiar wailing cry came from the other side of the wooden door. A moment later, it burst open, and Lelouch came rushing in with a look of terror on his face before throwing himself onto C.C.'s lap. A few seconds later, a large black beetle buzzed into the room and landed on the floor.

"Lelouch!" C.C. cried joyfully as she embraced him. "Oh, thank goodness you're alright!" The Indian woman smiled and walked over to the beetle. She bent down and gently presented her open hand to the insect. It crawled on after a few seconds. The woman then walked over to the open window and placed it on the sill. After a few moments, the beetle took the air and flew off into the night.

"It's gone now, Lelouch," the Indian woman said in a soothing tone. "No more scary bug." Lelouch seemed to calm down when he heard this, especially when C.C. started stroking his head.

"I'll leave you two alone," she then said. But as she turned to leave, the witch called out to her.

"Wait!" she cried, causing the woman to stop; "I want to thank you for taking care of him when I couldn't...and I don't even know your name."

The Indian woman smiled warmly.

"I am Radha Bairaban," she replied. "We Children of Sirius are governed, first and foremost, by compassion. But I like to believe that anyone with a scrap of human decency would have done the same."

C.C. gasped when she heard the name of her organization.

Children of Sirius...it couldn't be...

Hours passed before Misato and Vree emerged from the tunnel that had led them to the Elder Things' ruined city. The director of Nerv had a look of deep mental anguish and despair on her face, as if she had seen horrors beyond imagining. Vree, however, merely hung its star-shaped head in despair.

"Director!" Dyer exclaimed as the other scientists clustered aroun dhtme

"Are you all right?" Watkins asked.

"Yes..." Misato replied, "I just..."

I have seen what I wish to see, apes, Vree said to the group in a dejected manner. You are free to go. The scientists all looked at each other, amazed that they had been set free. With their freedom regained, their zest for discovery seemed to return.

"If it iz not too much trouble," Orrendorf said, "ve vould like to zee what's inside for ourselves." To their surprise, Misato raised her head and glared at all of them with angry eyes.

"No," she said coldly, "we're sealing the tunnel right now, and then heading for home. The mystery of the fossil giants has been solved, as far as I'm concerned." This statement sent a wave of surprise through the assembled group, and all but Wilmarth and Fuyutsuki seemed hesitant to follow it.

"That was an order from your Director," Misato's right-hand man shouted. "Get to it!" That was enough to make the Nerv scientists move to begin work on their new task. As the group dispersed, the gray-haired professor turned to his young superior.

"I understand why you're doing this, Director," Fuyutsuki said to her. "If you saw what I think you saw in that cave, you're probably doing the right thing. There is some knowledge that is best forgotten."

Misato, reassured somewhat by her adviser's words, turned back to the Elder Thing who had come to respect her.

"So, Vree," she said. "What will you do? This place is your home."

I have no desire to remain here in this cold wasteland, Vree replied. Perhaps I'll travel around this world that's come into existence since my kind disappeared. I could use a good laugh, seeing what kind of so-called 'civilization' you apes have built.

With that, it spread his five wings and took to the air at an astonishing speed, then flying behind the peak of the mountain they had been on...

Several days passed without incident in Tara and Janus' life, though they couldn't help but feel aggravated at the increasing frequency of terrorist attacks, outbreaks of small-scale conflicts in many of the former Areas, and even cult killings. The peace they had risked everything for seemed to be falling apart before their very eyes, and all they could do was watch.

In times like these, they sought comfort in their love for one another - although there were some things Janus was still uncomfortable with doing, even with the person he cared about the most.

"For the last time, no!" Janus cried as he defensively pulled the sheets of their bed pulled over his crotch. The full moon shone down on Tara, who was leaning in and gazing at him seductively. Neither of them had any clothes on, save for their undergarments.

"C'mon," Tara whispered. "It'll feel great, and you don't have to worry about getting me pregnant." The young man blushed and looked away.

"I'm sorry, but I'm just not ready, even for that," he replied meekly. "Honestly, I'm...kinda scared of doing it." The young woman sighed, seeing that she wasn't going to get any firther with him tonight.

"All right," she said, kissing him gently on the cheek. "I won't force you to go that far if you're really scared." Janus smiled back, grabbed Tara and pulled her close, kissing her deeply.

Suddenly, the Knight's phone rang. Wondering who it could be at this hour, she reached for her nightstand and picked it up – it was a video call. She covered herself with some of the sheets before answering.

"Hellooooo, Tara!" the person on the other end said enthusiastically. "Glad to see you're awake, even at this hour!" It was Lloyd Asplund, who now headed up Camelot, Britannia's military research and development organization – they had been central to the development of both the Lancelot and the XEM series.

"This is a really bad time, Lloyd," Tara said, trying not to sound annoyed at having her intimate time interrupted. "Can't this wait?"

"I'm afraid not, Your Grace," the scientist said. "You see, the boys at Camelot have been busy, but they finally fixed it, and I just had to tell you!" He turned his phone's camera toward the back of what appeared to be a hangar, revealing a machine Tara recognized.

Mimir Dysphoria Valk – a variant of the XEM-04 she fought against more than once. But ever since Camelot recreated it using parts from broken Valks they had found in the Valley of Kadmon, it had been her machine; and it had helped her put an end to its fair share of uprisings started by nobles who opposed Euphemia's policies. It, along with the Mimir Alatreox, was one of two machines left that used the Transitional Zone Ultra-positional Matrix system.

"By the way, is your boy-toy with you?" Lloyd asked. "We've got something for him as well...in fact, it's the main reason I called." Tara handed Janus the phone as the view shifted to another mech.

This one was much taller than the Mimir Dysphoria Valk – indeed, it was about the size of a Great Mazinger. It resembled his old Granlif in many respects, but instead of the pseudo-glasses and hemispherical knobs, it had two great horns sticking out of each side of its head while a single crest protruded from the top. It had streaks of cyan on its legs, which looked more humanoid than Granlif's conical limbs. It also had a cyan crest on its chest that looked like a stylized tree branch. Finally, it had chain-like designs engraved in bands that wrapped around its wrists, ankles and forearms.

"This, Mister Olendra," Lloyd explained, "is the XNG-0B Granlif Ceadei. It's very similar to your old Granlif Yggdrasil in terms of its weapons, though it doesn't have nearly as much output. Based on our testing, it's about as powerful as the XEM series you lot fought against during the war, thanks to its mass-production version of Granlif's old Transitional Zone Interpolation Matrix system."

"Mass-production...TZIM?!" he exclaimed.

"Turns out old man Charles had one of those too," the engineer replied as his assistant Cecile stepped into the picture. "And we found it in a bunker beneath the crater where old Pendragon used to be, of all places!"

So Atik Yomin mass-produced the TZIM too, he thought. Good thing they never put it into action.

"We're going to finish the final checks tonight," Cecile said. "You two sleep well. We'll contact you sometime tomorrow morning."

"Wait...why are you creating more war machines?" Tara exclaimed before Lloyd could end the call, peeking over Janus' shoulder. "The world's at peace, all of the terrorism aside...we don't need more of that kind of firepower, do we?"

"It...was my idea," Janus said, looking rather ashamed. "I was frustrated, watching you throw yourself into battle time after time. So one day I contacted Camelot and asked him to make me something I could use to fight by your side...and protect you if I needed to. But if you..."

To his surprise, Tara giggled and wrapped her arms around him.

"Oh, Janus," she said, "you really are a wonderful man!"

"Hard to believe it's almost over," Daisuku said as he and most of other DREAMers that came to the Fleed System looked out from their respective machines at Zu Zambajil's castle. It looked very much like the castles made in the Earth's Middle Ages, right down to the cone-peaked towers, stone battlements and metal gate. Assembled around them were a number of Boazanian tanks, Minifos piloted by Vegans loyal to Rubina, as well as Boazanian Battle Beasts and Vegan Saucer Beasts. Hovering behind them was Zuril's flagship, the Queen Spazer.

"Yes," Duke replied from the cockpit of Grendizer. "It's been a long, hard year. But with Rubina and her forces cleaning up in the Vegan capital, and Maria, Jhon Kartur and Luiee Mitton overseeing the surrender of Campbell's forces, all that remains is this last stronghold."

"What cowards Gandal and Janera are, abandoning their men to cower here behind Zu Zambajil," Heinel said from the cockpit of Godor; "They're merely delaying the inevitable."

As he said this, the ground began to shake as hundreds of Vegan Minifos, scores of Campbellian Slave Monsters, enemy Battle Beasts and controlled Saucer Beasts marched into the field between them and the castle. Accompanying this army was a huge pink flying saucer, easily 300 meters in diameter.

"That pink ship," Duke exclaimed, "it's Gandal's flagship, the Motherburn! So he really did flee here!"

"Lord Consort," Zuril said, using Duke's new title, a reference to his position as Rubina's chosen mate. "I would to trying talking some sense into Gandal. I may be able to get him to surrender."

"You're welcome to try," the pilot of Grendizer said grimly, "but if he even considering giving up, he would have done so long ago."

"Our scanners don't detect any Boazanian or Campbellian ships here," Kosuke said. "Does that mean we managed to stop Janera from escaping?"

"So, Duke Fleed and friends," Gandal's voice came from the pink vessel's loudspeakers; "you've come this far!"

"But today, we who were chosen by Emperor Vega to rule shall watch your end together!" Zambajil said, also coming from the Motherburn.

"And once Grendizer and those irksome Super Electromagnetic robots are no more," Janera said, "this system shall be ours to do with as we please!"

"I guess not," Hyoma sighed.

"All three of them have come to meet their ends in battle," Heinel chuckled. "Perhaps they aren't as spineless as I thought."

"Or they have some secret weapon or other trick they've been saving," Duke warned. "Don't let your guards down for a moment!"

"Gandal!" Zuril called out to his former comrade. "Enough is enough! Emperor Vega is dead, and his daughter only wants peace for the planets and people of the Fleed System..."

"You call it the 'Fleed System'," the Vegan general interrupted. "If you truly had Vega's best interests at heart, you'd not refer to the Empire as belonging to that dead planet! Besides, it was YOU who had our Emperor killed!" Zuril gritted his teeth, but did not reply.

"Go, soldiers of the Empire!" Gandal then commanded to his troops; "Destroy Grendizer, Voltes and Combattler as well as the traitors and peasants!" The numerous mechanical monsters let out vicious cries rushed at Duke and his forces.

Brother, Kentaro Go thought as he watched the enemy attack from Zuril's battleship, so this is how it ends for us.

"Let's go, everyone!" Duke cried. "A new, better age for all of our planets is within reach!" With that, his own forces did the same and charged to meet the enemy...

It was a warm, sunny day at Ashford Academy, and several members of Class 2-A were hard at work tending the school's watermelon patch near one of the fences surrounding the property. Leading the effort was Shinji Ikari, who had matured significantly since the war, both physically and emotionally. His hair was still in a tied-back mullet, not unlike Ryoji Kaji's had been. He and the rest of the class were wearing simple clothes – white shirts and dark work pants meant for getting dirty, though Shinji himself sported a baseball cap with Nerv's new logo on it.

"Asuka, how's the soil pH in that area?" he asked, turning to the former pilot of Eva Unit 02, who was down on her hands and knees.

"6.4, right where it should be," the redhead replied with a satisfied nod after checking the test used to determine the dirt's acidity.

"Shall we add more mulch to the northeast section, Shinji-kun?" Kaworu asked as he pushed a wheelbarrow full of the stuff toward the patch.

"I guess it wouldn't hurt," Shinji replied after a moment of thought; "I'll help you with that in a minute." He walked over to where Nunnally and Hikari Horaki were working.

"Nunnally, Hikari, make sure the young melons don't slip off their straw beds," he said. "Otherwise they may develop fungal diseases from contact with the dirt."

"Got it, Shinji," Nunnally replied as she and Hikari carefully shifted some softball-sized melons onto beds of straw. He then walked toward Rei and Rolo, who were laying down a hose.

"Rei, Rolo," Shinji said, "make sure the extra section of soaker hose is low to the ground, so the leaves don't get wet when it turns on."

"You got it," Rolo said. Rei simply nodded. The former pilot of Eva Unit 01 next turned to Kensuke and Toji, who were digging fertilizer out of a bag.

"Kensuke, Toji, the fertilizer needs to be evenly distributed so that all of the melons can get big," Shinji said in a half-scolding manner.

"Roger that, boss-man," Kensuke said, giving a mock salute. Satisfied, he turned to help Kaworu spread the mulch. As he walked away from them, Toji leaned over to his friend.

"Shinji sure got a take-charge attitude ever since da class started dis melon patch last year," he whispered. "No wonder he unseated Hikari as class rep."

"Actually, he's acting a lot like Mister Kaji did," Kensuke replied. "Maybe that's why he and Asuka have gotten so much closer. Man, I'm so jealous!" As the two started to go back to work, they heard someone approaching and then calling out to them.

"Hey, Class 2-A!"

Everyone in the group looked over and saw Misato approaching.

"Misato!" Shinji exclaimed. "You're back!"

"And boy, am I glad to be," she replied as everyone gathered around her. "I've had enough of Antarctic cold for three lifetimes."

"Welcome back, Director Katsuragi," Rei said politely. To her surprise, Misato rolled her eyes.

"I told you, Rei," Nerv's director said, "you can just call me Miss Katsuragi, or even plain old Misato. You're not Eva pilots anymore, remember?" Rei nodded – even after being away from Nerv and DREAM for three years, she still couldn't break her old habits.

"Still growing watermelons, I see," she then said, looking over the class' patch.

"Hopefully the crop will be as good as last year," Shinji said.

"I'm sure it will," Misato said with a friendly smirk; "You've got quite the green thumb, Shinji." The young man blushed with embarrassment.

"I couldn't maintain a patch this size all by myself," he said humbly. "I have all these guys helping me." Misato nodded and started to walk away, only to be stopped by Hikari.

"So," she asked, "can you tell us anything about what happened in Antarctica? Did you learn anything new about the fossil giants?"

Misato grimaced as she thought back to what she had seen.

"Yeah," she replied, trying and failing to hide her true feelings; "we learned quite a bit. More than anyone expected."

"What's wrong?" Hikari asked, not a little surprised about her former superior's sudden change in attitude.

"Look, I need to get back to HQ to work on the full report for the scientific journals," Misato said adamantly. "I just wanted to say hi to you guys, that's all. Good luck with your melon patch!" With that, Nerv's director hurriedly walked away.

"I wonder what she learned," Asuka said to Shinji as the group returned to their assigned jobs.

"Yeah," Shinji said, "when Hikari asked about it, her whole attitude changed. It must be something that she doesn't want anyone else to know." Neither of them noticed Kaworu had a similarly grim expression on his face.

Misato must have seen THEIR city, he thought; I can only imagine how she must feel, having learned the truth about the children of Adam...and of Lilith...

Lloyd let out a great yawn - it had been a long night for everyone, running the final checks on Granlif Ceadei. As a new machine working with a relatively unknown drive system, he and his staff had to take every precaution. Mimir Dysphoria Valk was back in the nearby hangar.

As the test pilot activated the Threshold generator, a large portal appeared on the ground

"Now, fire portal number two," Lloyd said. "Fifty degrees up, thirty degrees left, and 100 yards forward." The test pilot did so, and a second Threshold appeared there.

"Gravitational fluctuation is within acceptable limits, Earl," a staff member said while watching a monitor that measured the Thresholds' effects on the fabric of spacetime – something that was never dreamed possible until Project Threshold. Lloyd nodded as he sipped his coffee.

"Clear the landing area!" Cecile called out. Numerous workers scattered to avoid being caught beneath the robot's great weight.

"Okay, Gilman," the engineer said; "Go on through."

The test pilot made Granlif step into the portal, and it immediately popped out the other side. But instead of falling, the machine's flight system activated as a single pair of rainbow light wings sprouted from its back.

"Gilman, we don't need to test the flight system again!" Lloyd exclaimed, surprised at this. He sipped a bit more of his coffee.

"No, we don't," Gilman replied. "Granlif Ceadei has passed all of its checks with flying colors. Now, it can serve the great Keisar Ephes, and destroy the weakling queen that is bringing ruin to our nation!"

Lloyd suddenly spit out his coffee in shock.

"Mighty Keisar Ephes," the rogue test pilot cried as the light wings on Granlif's back turned pitch-black, "watch as I, Walter Gilman, become worthy of being one of Your Neshamah by disposing of the false queen Euphemia!" With that, Granlif Ceadei turned, opened up a portal and dove in, leaving the rest of his fellow staff in shock...

"What?! You can't be serious!" Tara exclaimed when she got the news of Granlif Ceadei's hijacking from Lloyd and Cecile at breakfast. Cobray looked up from his own morning meal, while Janus leaned in to listen.

"I'm afraid so," the earl said; "Its test pilot must have got taken in by this cult nonsense."

"Any idea of where he might have taken it?" Tara asked.

"Considering he was yelling about Her Majesty and something called 'Keisar Ephes'," Lloyd answered, "he's almost certainly going straight for New Pendragon, and it looks like he's using Thresholds to speed up travel."

"Keisar...Ephes...?" Janus muttered. That name made Cobray suddenly stand up and leave the table without either of the other two diners noticing.

"This is bad," the Knight exclaimed; "He'll get there long before anyone can mount a defense!"

"We've already had someone contact the palace," Cecile said; "Suzaku and your cousins Rosalind and Scott are there."

"Don't worry too much," Lloyd said, "Between the three of them, they should be able to stop him. The man's never fought a real battle in his life, and Suzaku's the Knight of One!"

But he can still attack New Pendragon itself, Tara thought, and kill countless people!

"Was the Valk taken too?" she then asked. "Was it damaged?"

"Thankfully not, on both counts," the head of Camelot replied. Tara felt her dread lessen – she could do something.

"I'll be right over," she said. "Get Valk loaded up." With that, she ended the call and turned to Janus.

"Jan, I'm heading for Camelot HQ, then to New Pendragon."

"I heard everything," her beloved replied. "Be careful." Tara smiled back and rushed off. Once he was alone, Janus looked around.

"Hey, where did Cobray go?" he exclaimed to no one in particular...

The battle at Zambajil's castle was unlike any the Fleed System had ever seen – the wreckage of countless vehicles and mechanical monsters littered the battlefield, and the sky was dark with the smoke emitted by the fallen machines, while the corpses of soldiers from both sides were interspersed among them. But the sacrifices of those fighting for the Fleed system's freedom were paying off – Grendizer and the two Super Electromagnetic robots were getting very close to the Motherburn.

But unbeknownst to everyone else in the battle, this slaughter was everything Janera was hoping for.

"Gandal, Zambajil," she suddenly said. "I believe it's time I kept my promise."

"What do you mean?" the Boazanian noble exclaimed. With a wicked grin, Janera suddenly caused her face to change – her smooth skin turned to thick scales, her eyes turned yellow and even more serpentine, and she grew long, narrow fangs in her mouth, while her tongue forked in the same manner as a snake's.

"Yesssss," she hissed. "It issss time to bring forth the one who shall be our sssssystem's new rallying point...no, itssss GOD!" With that, the wicked snake-woman raised her staff, causing a magic circle covered in mystical symbols to appear at her feet while the eye on her staff glowed ominously. The snake that was coiled around her suddenly uncoiled itself and dropped into the circle, disappearing into the floor as she began to chant in a language neither Gandal nor Zambajil recognized.

Outside, the battle seemed to stop as the air around them began to shimmer ominously. On the ground, the corpses in the wrecked ships suddenly moldered away into a foul-smelling black sludge that seeped into the rocky earth. Duke and his friends, meanwhile, suddenly felt themselves overcome by a familiar sensation that had dared hope they'd never feel again.

"This feeling...it's just like when Nyog'Sothep appeared," Chizuru said as her body shuddered.

"Below us!" Hiyoshi cried. When they all looked down, they saw that a rip in spacetime with rotting edges had opened in the ground, swallowing many of the fallen troops and consigning them to the outer voids, as well as a few unlucky Boazanian tanks and soldiers.

Moments later, something crawled up and out of the rip – a monstrous, serpent-like being over two kilometers long with two great clawed arms near the front of its body. Its bright purple-red body had a mustard-yellow belly, while a hydra-like thicket of house-sized snake heads - each marked by a white crescent – grew from the front of its body. A serpentine trunk-like neck thicker than the rest protruded from the center of the mass, with an enormous eye glaring out from the tip. Its tail, meanwhile, was tipped with a rattle. As the rip closed beneath it, dozens, if not hundreds of much smaller serpents – ranging in size from anacondas to garter snakes – materialized around the being's body. All of these snakes bore the same white crescent as their progenitor.

"Y...Y...Yig, the Father of Serpents!" Duke gasped as the monstrous being that Janera had summoned shook its rattle menacingly, opened its mouths wide and let out a cacophony of deep hissing.

"You know this thing, Daisuke?" Ippei exclaimed, surprised that the Fleedian prince recognized this thing instantly.

"My old nurse told me and Maria stories of this being to scare us into being good," Grendizer's pilot replied uneasily, "but to see it in real life..."

"You Fleedians are not the only ones with stories about this, Duke Fleed," Heinel said, trying his hardest to keep his voice from trembling; "There are tales in Boazan's lore of Godor fighting against a monstrous serpent god named Yig that lived in ultimate darkness. It was of such power that Godor nearly lost his life in banishing it!"

"I always suspected Janera was in league with some foul power," Zuril added, "but I hadn't imagined it would be something like this!"

Back inside the Motherburn, Gandal and Zambajil gazed in speechless horror at the monstrosity that their compatriot had summoned.

"W-w-w-w-what is that?" Zambajil stammered. "Some n-n-n-new kind of S-s-slave Monster?"

"Foolssss!" Janera hissed. "I told you! Thisssss is the new god of our sssssystem!" Gandal gasped as he realized the truth, and turned angrily toward Campbell's ruler. But before he could say a word, Janera turned to her co-conspirators, and pointed her staff at them.

Within moments, Gandal and Zambajil's arms turned into snakes with white crescents on their heads. These serpents, which remained attached to the mens' bodies, immediately turned and bit them, sinking their fangs into exposed flesh. It wasn't long before the two men began screaming as a hideous blood-destroying toxin began working its way through their bodies, causing them to gradually turn purple and bloat horribly as blood leaked out of every orifice. But their agony was short-lived – their bodies were reduced to little more than piles of bloated meat with clothing in less than a minute. The serpents that had once been their arms detached themselves from the mass and slithered over to Janera and up her staff. Three of them phased into the staff's eye and disappearing as if they had never been. The last snake coiled around Janera's body as her previous one did.

"Mighty Yig," Janera said triumphantly over the loudspeaker, catching Yig's attention; "who rulesssss all sssserpents from the outer void! Sssssmite my enemies as per our contract, and in exchange, I give you this whole ssssssystem for you and your blessssssed children to rule!"

"Outer void?!" Kenichi exclaimed as the serpent god turned back toward his summoner's enemies; "Could this entity be of the same ilk as Nyog'Sothep?!"

"No time to think about that," Hyoma said. "Here it comes!"

New Pendragon, in spite of being a work in progress, already shone brilliantly in the light of the desert dawn. Britannia's new capital, built in its state of Arizona, was being built several dozen miles from the original's location. The UFN and its member nations had, in gratitude for their freedom, generously provided resources to build the new city - and after only three years, it was nearly as beautiful as the one that had been destroyed by a FLEIJA.

One major difference was that the royal palace was far smaller and more modest than its predecessor, even if it was still the largest building in the city. It was still beautiful in every aesthetic sense, but it lacked the sheer extravagance that typically defined the principal home of a monarch. None could deny that Euphemia wanted to show her humility in some fashion.

It was over this palace that Suzaku, Rosalind and Scott sparred as they trained in their Knightmares. Numerous other Knightmares, all members of the palace guard, watched from below.

"You two are getting better every day," the Knight of One said amicably as he ended a clash between his Lancelot Albion and their twin Gracchus units. "You actually made me break a sweat today!" The palace guards on the ground laughed.

But before anyone could say anything more, a voice came over the Lancelot's communicator.

"Sir Kururugi," the voice said, "there's an unknown machine heading straight for the city from the northeast! It's moving fast...it might be using Thresholds!" Suzaku turned in that direction, magnified the images on his monitor and saw it – Granlif Ceadei.

"I see it," he said. "Any idea of who's piloting it?"

"We've just received word from Camelot," another voice said; "It's been hijacked!" Suzaku grimaced.

"Is the hijacker related to the cult killers that struck the Arkham City area?" the Knight asked.

"Negative," the second voice said; "the hijacker is a test pilot from Camelot's own staff, and if our information is correct, he's gunning for Her Highness!"

"Ground units, begin Procedure 3B," the Knight ordered, knowing that the guards knew everything that the procedure entailed; "Scott, Rosalind, you're with me!"

"Yes, my lord!" everyone else barked in reply. With that, the three airborne Knightmares took off toward the edge of the city, and quickly managed to intercept the enemy machine. But before Suzaku could order the pilot to surrender, the pilot addressed the Knight.

"Suzaku Kururugi!" Gilman said as Granlif Ceadei drew its Gran Cutters; "I had a feeling you'd try to stand in my way!" Suzaku gasped as he recognized the pilot's voice.

"You're Walter Gilman," the Knight exclaimed. "You were with the team who helped develop the Lancelot!"

"And you turned it against Britannia, all for the sake of that false princess," the crazed test pilot replied. "The great Keisar Ephes has chosen me to pass judgment upon you and your weakling liege!" The machine's black wings flared out in response to its pilot's will.

In response, rings formed around Suzaku's irises, awakening his senses.

My 'live' command, he thought, realizing what this meant, why is it activating now? Is Gilman, who never had any actual battle experience, really that dangerous? Or is it something else?!

"Let us handle this punk, Sir Kururugi!" Scott said confidently as he and Rosalind readied their Knightmares' swords. "He's not worthy o' bein' yer opponent!" But as the two Gracchus closed in on Granlif Ceadei, it backed away as two pairs of spacetime rips with rotting edges suddenly opened up on either side of him.

Each of the rips allowed a fleshy, vaguely bean-shaped entity the same size as Granlif to float through. Their bodies were primarily disgusting and loathsome shades of purple, red and pink, while six bone spikes covered in green veins protruded vertically from their backs. In between the two smallest spikes was a vaguely diamond-shaped growth of flesh and bone. The purple section in front of the spikes and diamond growth had a trio of leering black pits that seemingly passed for eyes and a mouth, while several tiny wailing faces dotted the area around the larger face. Just below its faces was a disturbingly sexual gash that had several red vein-like tubes snaking out of it, and below that were two kidney-shaped masses that pulsed and throbbed in a sickening fashion.

"What the bloody hell are those?!" Rosalind exclaimed in disgust. But they didn't have much time to react before the fleshy horrors suddenly opened up their largest mouths many times wider than normal and belched out tremendous blasts of concussive sound and slicing wind, sending the two Gracchus flying and nearly blowing them apart – thankfully, they were able to eject. Suzaku's inhuman reaction time, however, allowed him to dodge the blasts by the slimmest of margins.

Meanwhile, Gilman grinned maniacally as he lunged in the direction that the Lancelot had dodged, slashing off one of the white Knightmare's arms with its Gran Cutters.

He knew which way I would dodge?! Suzaku thought.

"You may be the Knight of One, Eleven, but I've been blessed with sight beyond sight by the great Keisar Ephes," he cackled gleefully; "And with the help of His appendages, the Lamalice Ida, I will make you fall, and the weakling queen will know what it means to suffer!"

Suzaku wanted to retort that Euphemia knew plenty about suffering, but the hideous Lamalice gave him no such opportunity – they began to rapidly fire beams of black energy from different points on their bodies, forcing the Knight of One on the defensive once again. Granlif Ceadei went on the attack, slashing wildly with the Gran Cutters, heedless to the Lamalice's barrage of energy. Indeed, the blasts seemed to not be touching the machine at all.

However, Suzaku's mind quickly concocted a plan.

If I can just force him into the path of the Lamalices' fire, he thought. When an opportunity arose, the Knight dodged one of the beams seemingly straight into the path of his opponent's blade, assuming it would strike the limb.

But to Suzaku's dismay, he was struck by both the beam and the blade – and in the fraction of a second before both attacks hit, he saw why:

The beam was passing through Granlif as it it wasn't even there.

The power of both attacks demolished the Lancelot Albion's other arm, its Energy Wing system and both of its legs, forcing Suzaku to eject. But his cockpit didn't get far – it flew straight into a Threshold and then out of another, right into the hijacked mech's grasp.

"Ha-ha! Victory is mine!" Gilman cackled. "Now, I shall crush you like the insect you are!" Suzaku gritted his teeth and waited for the end as the cockpit started to slowly collapse around him, shorting out his monitor.

But suddenly, Suzaku was jolted in his seat, and his cockpit ceased imploding.

"It stopped?" he muttered. But suddenly, he felt the cockpit seemingly blast off at high speed – though he quickly realized that he had been thrown in an arc. He braced himself, hoping that he would be able to survive the inevitable impact.

The impact came after a dreadful thirty or so seconds, but it was only the beginning, the cockpit bounced around violently, smashing the Knight of One into every side of his confinement over and over for what felt like an eternity before finally coming to a stop.

Suzaku groaned as he blacked out, not noticing the silhouette of a woman opening his cockpit hatch...

Cobray cursed himself for arriving too late to save Tara's other cousins and her friend. But at the very least, he would use Dis Astranagant to punish this evildoer and his hideous cronies.

Dis Astranagant's appearance was akin to a suit of Gothic plate armor, although it showed some ancient Egyptian motifs as well. Its general color scheme was jet-black with gold highlights and gray coloring on its chest plates, along with glowing crimson eyes. Its sharp, angular and golden wings folded out to reveal numerous thrusters that emitted a neon-green energy exhaust as it hovered. Meanwhile, its face had very little recognizable features save its eyes and two head-mounted crests shaped like bat wings. The chin and neck appeared to be fused into one piece with its upper torso. The result was a grim, demonic appearance that is certainly frightening to behold. Thankfully, its pilot was far more inclined to do good than evil.

"As much as I'd like to stay and play with you," Gilman said, "I must get back to my mission!" With that, he turned away and started back towards the palace. Cobray started to follow, but the Lamalices intervened. The silver-haired pilot sensed that the bloated horrors seemed to be entirely focused on him.

Out of the corner of his eye, Cobray noticed something appearing seemingly out of thin air over the city, blocking the hijacked mech's path.

Good, he thought. Tara can keep the hijacker busy. Once I'm done with these things, I'll help her.

"Go, Gun Slaves," he said. Several bat-winged attack drones popped out of a hatch in Dis Astranagant's shoulders and sped off to attack the Lamalices. They peppered the eldritch horrors with a barrage of energy blasts, causing foul black sludge to burst from them. They countered with more beams of black energy, but Cobray easily dodged and wove around them.

"In fact," he said to himself, "I'll end this now." He focused his mind as he prepared to unleash his machine's ultimate weapon. His hair color suddenly changed to a lustrous, sapphire-blue, and another spirit seemed to surge up from deep within him...one he knew very well.

"Come forth, Dis Lev!" he uttered, a second, deeper voice speaking along with him. When Cobray spoke those words, Dis Astranagant stopped moving and opened its arms up, allowing three plates to pop open, blooming almost like a flower. It then grabbed two plates on its chest and pulled them open, revealing a small cannon.

"Tetractys...Grammaton," he then said, causing the cannon to form a sphere of eerie, multi-colored light at its time. As the orb began to grow, clouds suddenly appeared in the desert sky directly over the Lamalices, as if a great storm was brewing.

"Now," the Time Diver said as if commanding the Lamalice; "return to nothingness, in the midst of this infinite light...Infinity Cylinder, Ain Soph Aur!"

The mech fired off the orb at the four Lamalices, but instead of striking them, it seemingly burst like a bubble, only to reappear around them and swallow them up. The clouds suddenly unleashed a green energy bolt that struck the energy sphere. The sphere of energy seethed and roiled for several seconds before finally dispersing. The Lamalices were completely and utterly gone, as if they had never been.

"So, the game's begun anew," Cobray chuckled as the clouds dispersed, "hasn't it, Keisar Ephes?" He glanced over and saw Granlif Ceadei suddenly get slammed into the ground by something...

Unsurprisingly, Grendizer, Godor, Combattler and Voltes were in a bad spot as they struggled to combat the serpent god Yig. Their attack were able to damage the creature, and they even managed to remove some of its heads. But like the Lernean hydra of legend, each neck would grow two new heads to replace the single lost one. Yig now had no less than fifty heads now, all dripping venom that seethed and hissed as they hit the ground.

"Fools!" Janera cackled as Yig lunged at Grendizer with three heads; "No matter what you do, you cannot defeat the Father of Serpents!"

"Kentaro, do you remember exactly how Godor banished Yig?!" Duke said as he slashed the three heads away with the Double Haken. The serpent god's blood was a green bile that sprayed all over the machine. Thankfully, the Fleedian mecha's armor resisted its corrosive effects completely.

"Unfortunately, I do not," Kentaro said grimly. "But if I recall your battle with Nyog'Sothep correctly, it had at least one soul from this multiverse somehow anchoring him to it."

"But those souls were inside that guy!" Hyoma said as Combattler dodged away from a glob of venom that one of Yig's heads had sent its way;."How did Godor get at Yig's anchor?! We can barely slice through his hide, and even then it heals right away!"

"He didn't need to!" Heinel said as he made his mech breathe fire at two of the heads, setting them alight. "The legend says Godor struck Yig's central eye with his sword, and channeled his holy power into it!"

"Could that 'holy power' actually have been Super Electromagnetism?" Zuril said.

"Maybe," Kosuke said. "It is one of the Sephirotic energies, after all."

"But Godor's sword was surely special," Kentaro said. "And the mechanical form that Heinel is piloting is nothing more than a copy. Besides, now that I recall it, the sword was broken during the fight, and only a single shard remained."

That shard was given to the Boazanian royal family, Heinel thought. What happened to it afterward is unknown. If it still exists, it's probably...

Suddenly, a voice that the Boazanian prince hadn't heard since the battle at Jachin Due: the voice of the Godor mech.

The key to banishing the Father of Serpents once more is very near, son of Boazan, it said; You need but check your right hip.

Heinel did so, and felt the dagger he kept at his side, and his face lit up.

"No need to worry, father!" the horned prince proclaimed; "We already have Godor's blade! The shard was made into the dagger my mother gave me!"

"Are you sure?" Duke said, surprised at it being so convenient. "It's just a legend."

"That's all we have to go on," Kentaro replied. "Then I assume you have a plan, son?"

"It's simple," Kenichi said confidently; "We'll plunge the dagger into Yig's central eye, then use a Super Electromagnetic attack on it, like a lightning rod!"

"Allow me to do the honors," Kenichi's half-brother said. This understandably startled the three Go brothers.

"Wait," Hiyoshi exclaimed, "you don't mean that you're going to stab the eye yourself with that tiny dagger?!"

"For the glory of Boazan," the prince declared, "I'll gladly sacrifice everything!" With that, Heinel stopped his mech, removed the helmet and stepped out of a hatch in Godor's chest and onto its hand, then to the ground.

"Heinel..." Kenichi muttered.

"Voltes team," his father called out; "Split Voltes V up! We'll need the speed of the Volt Cruiser to get close enough!" The leader of the Voltes team nodded, and did so, causing each of Voltes' parts to resume their vehicle shapes.

"All units, spread out and surround Yig! Divide its attention as much as possible!" Zuril commanded. The remaining forces started to open fire, causing Yig's heads to start fanning out in different directions. Meanwhile, the Volt Cruiser flew over to Heinel's postion, and Kenichi opened the cockpit to let his half-brother in.

"Are you ready, brother?" Kenichi asked. "I'm going to fly as close as I can to Yig's central eye. But you'll have to jump from there."

"That shall not be a problem...brother," Heinel replied. Kenichi smiled and closed the hatch and took to the air. As they flew towards the serpent god, the Voltes team's leader saw bolts of energy being fired from the Motherburn, and swerved to avoid them.

"I don't know what you're planning," Janera said. "but I will not let you go through with it!"

"Drat, it's the Motherburn!" Heinel spat angrily. "Looks like Janera knows what we're trying to do."

Suddenly, a rain of missiles, energy bolts and other projectiles rained down from above, hammering the late Gandal's flagship. The group fighting Yig looked up to see a welcome sight: a huge force of Saucer Beasts, Battle Beasts and Vegan Minifos - all loyal to Rubina – descending from the heavens.

"It's the rest of our forces!" Megumi exclaimed. The reinforcements fired off another salvo of attacks, hammering Yig and the Motherburn further.

"Now's our chance!" Hyoma cried out. "Let's finish off that witch Janera once and for all!" With that, Combattler formed a Super Electromagnetic Energy tornado in its arms.

"CHOUDENJI...TATSUMAKIIIIIIIII!"

The attack struck the Motherburn dead-on, sending it spiraling into the sky.

"CHOUDENJI SPIIIIIIIIIN!"

Combattler raised its arms straight over its head, and its hands fused together, and it started to spin around like a drill. It then rocketed straight at the crippled ship, burrowing straight through it and out the other side.

"LORD YIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIG!" Janera cried as the ship's explosion utterly consumed her.

Meanwhile, the Volt Cruiser swooped in close to the stunned serpent god, and Kenichi opened the hatch, then slowed down to give his half-brother a reasonable chance of making the leap. Without hesitation, Heinel then climbed to the edge of the Volt Cruiser, drew his mother's dagger, and jumped with all his might, clutching the weapon with both hands as he fell.

"FOR THE GLORY OF BOAZAAAAAN!" the horned prince cried as he plummeted. The neck that had Yig's central eye turned upward to see what was approaching it. For a few seconds it stared blankly at the falling Boazanian, almost as if unsure of what to make of this brazen attack.

Heinel plunged the weapon right into the central eye as he landed, all the way up to its hilt. The serpent god let out a cacophony of screeches and hisses of pain as it flailed wildly, throwing the Boazanian prince clear. But he didn't plummet far – he was caught by his shirt in the jaws of a bat-like Saucer Beast – Jhon Kartur.

"Good to see you are well, Prince Heinel," the Saucer Beast said. "Though I wonder what you hoped to achieve with that tiny knife."

"You will see, Fleedian," Heinel said as he climbed into his mouth. He turned and watched the Volt machines combine into Voltes V once more.

"It worked!" Kenichi said as Voltes landed beside Combattler. "Now, let's attack the dagger!"

"CHOUDENJI SPAAAAARK!" Hyoma yelled as it fired off a bolt of Super Electromagnetic energy.

"CHOUDENJI WAAAAAAAAAVE!" Kenichi bellowed as a beam of the same energy blasted from its hands. Just as planned, the energy bolts automatically aimed toward the dagger in Yig's eye.

"DISRUPTIVE BLOW!" the leaders of the two teams roared with all their might as they intensified their attacks; "CHOUDENJI THUNDERBOOOOLT!"

The bolts made Yig screech and hiss even more wildly, causing it to spew venom uncontrollably, as well as foul black sludge, not unlike Bokrug, even as the Super Electromagnetic energy coursed through its body and demolished the anchor deep within it.

"It worked!" Kentaro cheered. "The Father of Serpents is finished!" However, Duke decided to make sure – Grendizer popped its hakens out of its shoulders one more time and struck them together.

"DOUBLE HAKEN!" he cried. Grendizer then threw the weapon with all its might. It whirled like a buzz-saw, cleaving through Yig's heads like a scythe through wheat before finally slicing through the neck that had the serpent's central eye, and sending it crashing to the ground.

With that, the serpent god's body began to molder and rot into nothing more than a pile of the foul black sludge that it had been bleeding...

Tara grimaced as she faced down Granlif Ceadei over the heart of New Pendragon. Not once during the war had she ever actually went up against Janus' machine during training, even in the simulator...and now she would have to fight someone who had hijacked it. Still, she knew its abilities well enough.

"That machine," the hijacker said as he recognized Tara's machine, "if it isn't the Knight of Five!"

However, Tara was also acquainted with the hijacker, Walter Gilman...or at least she thought she was. Had the cult changed him, or was this really his true self, with all of his inhibitions removed?

"Walter," she said, "you of all people should understand that the machine you're piloting was meant for someone very dear to me, and he'd never use it to..."

"Be quiet, half-breed!" Gilman shouted. "Or I'll demolish you and your feeble tongue the same way I crushed the Knight of One!"

Tara almost couldn't believe what she was hearing.

"No way," she said, "Even I have trouble beating him! There's no way you could claim victory over Suzaku Kururugi!"

"But I did!" Gilman cackled; "With the aid of my Master's appendages, I smashed that blasted Lancelot of his to pieces, as well as that of your cousins Scott and Rosalind! In all likelihood, they're nothing more than bloody stains on the floors of their cockpits!"

He made Granlif Ceadei point at Tara's machine, while she clenched her teeth and her controls, doing her best to keep her grief over the demise of her cousins and Suzaku from clouding her judgment. However, the clouds created by Dis Astrangant's Infinity Cylinder seemed to reflect the deluge of tears that she was holding back.

"And now you shall share their fate!" the hijacker then said. "Come, Lamalices!"

Unbeknownst to him, they were busy being obliterated by Dis Astranagant's ultimate weapon, so they could not heed his call.

In desperation, Granlif's mad pilot suddenly turned the mech's head downward and fired off an energy beam from its eyes, demolishing a small, low building:

An elementary school.

The dam holding back Tara's tears finally burst as she imagined the smiling faces of hundreds of young, bright-eyed children and loving teachers twisting with agony as their bodies were annihilated by Granlif Ceadei's attack or crushed by the falling debris.

"Great Keisar Ephes," Gilman pleaded, "I offer this spilled blood to You! Please, send me..."

But his plea was cut off when Mimir Dysphoria Valk rocketed at Granlif Ceadei and impaled it through the chest with a beam tonfa, making sure to avoid striking the pilot. It then struck several more times, damaging Granlif's head and limbs before slamming the Britannian-made Super Robot into the middle of an intersection, taking out a traffic light, but not damaging any cars. Still, it was enough to cause people to get out of their vehicles and flee.

Tara landed Valk on top of her heavily-damaged foe, and then ripped open its hatch, exposing the still-stunned pilot. With a river of tears flowing from her eyes and her expression twisted by the blackest of angers, she opened her own cockpit, jumped down and rushed over to Granlif Ceadei's open hatch.

Gilman was just coming to when he saw the Knight approaching. He frantically tried to remove himself from the harness, but Tara was too quick, and smashed him in the chin with a right hook. She then continued her assault, slugging him over and over in the face and head with her fists as she started screaming, sobbing and wailing in time with each blow. Granlif's elastic harnesses made its pilot spring back from blows that should have knocked him to the floor, essentially turning him into a punching bag.

After a minute or so of this, someone grabbed her from behind, pulled her back and yelled as loud as they could:

"TARA, THAT'S ENOUGH!"

The Knight slowly stopped as her reason started to resume control of her body. The source of the voice also surprised her.

Cobray?

Indeed, it was Cobray Gordon. He had landed Dis Astranagant just outside, climbed up the wreckage of Granlif Ceadei and saw his friend and landlord beating the hijacker relentlessly.

"This isn't you!" he said, seeing that Tara was calming down. "This isn't how a Knight of the Round does things, is it?!"

The Knight looked at her battered foe – Gilman's face was so battered, bruised and bloodied that she almost couldn't recognize it. His jaw was broken and dislocated, he had lost most of his teeth, and blood was streaming from his ears and eyes, and he wheezed feebly.

In her eyes, the crazed hijacker had committed yet another crime against her – not only did he stain Granlif Ceadei with the blood of innocents and kill her cousins and her fellow Rounds, but he had almost made her give him the escape of death...

"So, it's over at long last," Duke said with a sigh as he, Rubina, the Combattler and Voltes teams, Kentaro Go, Heinel and Zuril gathered in the empress' private quarters at the Vegan royal palace. It was mostly decorated in red, and had numerous shelves that once had trinkets from Emperor Vega's conquests, but had since been emptied. Meanwhile, they looked out on the Vegans' capital city, which was abuzz with activity, mostly with dismantling the war machines that had enabled Vega's conquests.

"Yes," Duke's fiancee said. "With my father's governors gone, the worlds that Vega once ruled can rebuild, and rule themselves once more, and not just those in the Fleed System."

"But they will not be exactly the same as before," Kentaro said. "For one thing, Heinel and I will teach hornless and horned Boazanians to treat each other as equals." The horned prince nodded in grudging agreement.

"Deciding who will govern Campbell next is going to be tricky," Maria said. "Janera was their legitimate leader, even if she wasn't a very good one."

"Maybe you could implement a democracy, like the UFN on Earth," Chizuru suggested. "Let the people of Campbell decide for themselves." Rubina nodded.

"A wonderful idea, Miss Nanbara!" she said, her face beaming. "Of course, Vega will contribute whatever it can to helping the other worlds we had once conquered rebuild."

"And as Science Minister," Zuril added, "I have already begun allocating resources for developing a means to make new bodies for the surviving Fleedians whose brains were transplanted into Saucer Beasts."

"Hopefully Earthling science will be able to assist in that," Kentaro said. "I can't simply discredit the world who sheltered me for so long."

"So it'll still be a while before we can return home, huh?" Hiyoshi sighed. "I miss Earth. I wonder how everything is going."

"I'm sure things are fine there," Juzo said with a smirk. "The rest of DREAM is there, after all."

"I certainly hope so," Megumi said. As she said this, they noticed that a crowd was gathering at the entrance to the palace.

"Well," the empress said, "I must go and address my people." With that, she and her fiance stepped onto the balcony, and she soon began to speak. As the rest of the group watched, Kentaro turned to Zuril.

"Zuril, can we talk elsewhere?" he asked. "There is something I've been meaning to ask." He nodded, and the two excused themselves to the hallways.

"What do you wish to know, Prince La Gour?" Vega's Science Minister asked.

"Tell me," the hornless prince said, "how are the brains that guide Vega's Saucer Beasts kept alive and able to function? There are no life support systems for them...Jhon Kartur told me as much." At this, Zuril's expression darkened.

"The key is the fluid that the brains are contained in," he explained. "It alone can sustain a brain for centuries, and also protects it from the effects of almost any radiation, even Vegatron radiation."

Kentaro nodded. As a scientist, he couldn't help but be amazed.

"But in spite of their best efforts, the scientists of the Empire could not perfectly replicate this fluid themselves," Zuril continued. "Rather, they obtained it from the species who created it, in exchange for certain minerals that species cannot find on their home world, as well as some rather...unpleasant things."

"Do you know anything about this species?" Kentaro asked uneasily; "What planet are they from?"

"They call themselves the mi-go," Zuril said, but suddenly stopped.

"And?" the Boazanian prince said, determined to know the truth.

"...And they do not hail from this, or any other universe as we understand it," Vega's Science Minister said darkly; "It seems they are beings from 'Outside'...and are advanced almost beyond mortal comprehension..."

With Granlif Ceadei neutralized and the hijacker in custody of the authorities, Tara was able to get a better look at the damage that had been done, although with a heavy heart. Thankfully, there was a silver lining to this cloud.

"Rosalind! You're alive!" she cried when she saw her cousin on the video call. She was bruised, bloodied and bandaged, but also awake and alert.

"Sorry about th' scare, cousin," Rosalind said. "Our machines' communicators got smashed, so we couldn't get in touch with ya. Scott's in the bed next to me, in case yer wonderin'." Tara sighed with relief – at least she had not lost her family.

"What about Suzaku?" Tara then asked. "Is he there too?"

"I'm afraid not," Rosalind said, shaking her head. "When the search and rescue teams checked where Sir Kururugi's cockpit 'ad landed, they found that th' hatch was open, and that there was nobody inside!"

"He would know to stay in his cockpit," Tara said, puzzled by this.

"In fact, they couldn't find any trace of 'im outside of the cockpit," Tara's cousin added, "not even a bloody print! It's like he just up and vanished!"

This information sent a new wave of anxiety through the Knight of Five – if they couldn't find any traces of Suzaku, then...

"Well," she said, trying to show confidence, "I'm sure he'll turn up eventually if we keep looking."

"I hope yer right, Tara," Rosalind replied.

"He's the Knight of One," Tara assured her cousin. "Have a little faith. Anyway, it's great to know that you're okay. Take it easy, and get better soon!"

"Say 'ello to yer boyfriend for me," the St. Raphael Knight said. With that, they ended the call.

"But that fact won't bring back those teachers and schoolchildren," she muttered as she pocketed her phone, then to a sip of some tea the rescue crews had provided.

"I hear ya," a friendly voice said. "It's awful." She turned and saw Cobray Gordon – he had lingered, almost as if knowing she would need someone to talk to.

"Oh," she said with a sigh and a little smile, "hey, Cobray."

"I don't know if I said this already," the Time Diver said, "but I'm truly sorry that I didn't finish off those Lamalice sooner."

"It's not your fault," Tara replied, frowning again as she sat down on one of the concrete barriers; "it's because I wasn't quick enough to stop the hijacker." Cobray shook his head – Janus had told him that Tara was extremely quick to blame herself for any tragedy that she had even the slightest connection to.

"What's done is done," Cobray replied. "Lingering on the would haves, should haves, and if onlys solves nothing. All we can do is work through our emotions and move forward." As he said this, a pair of rescue crew passed by carrying a bloodied corpse of a little girl on a stretcher. The two turned and saw a man and a woman looking down at the girl as she was placed on the ground, then bursting into tears.

"If only it were that easy," Tara said, her heart aching at the sight of the grieving parents. Cobray could only nod – it was something he had seen far too many times across countless timelines. The two were silent for a few moments.

"Listen," Dis Astranagant's pilot said quietly in hopes of avoiding being overheard, "I guess you want an explanation about why I'm piloting that machine, right? Well, for starters..."

"You're not from this universe, are you?" Tara said, finishing the Time Diver's thought.

"You could tell?" Cobray exclaimed.

"I suspected as much from the moment I met you," the Knight replied. "Janus told me he had the same feeling when you and him first met."

"Well, then it may not surprise you that I know Kurou and Al fairly well," the silver-haired pilot said. "You see, we're both in the business of protecting the infinite realities - though as the Time Diver, my purpose is to ensure that spacetime remains in proper balance."

"It's probably complicated," Tara said with a giggle. "Right? I won't pry too much." Cobray smirked, happy that she trusted him enough to let the matter slide.

"Regardless," the Time Diver continued, "I deal with threats from Outside and from 'normal' universes as part of my duties. Those Lamalice creatures are of the former sort."

Tara thought back – Gilman had said that the Lamalice were appendages of his master, Keisar Ephes. If Cobray was familiar with the monsters of Outside, then maybe he could explain more about this entity.

"You wouldn't happen to know anything about that 'Keisar Ephes', would you?" she asked. "Is he threatening this reality?"

"Let's talk about this back home," Cobray said darkly. Tara nodded in agreement.

So that's it for this part. Things are certainly getting interesting for you guys, I hope. Anyhoo, next time...

-The New Photon Power Institute continues its study of Getter Rays, and seem to be on the verge of a breakthrough! But when Perfectio's forces make a move on the Science Fortress Laboratory, the entire facility will face its greatest peril since Atik Yomin! Can the Lab's forces hold off the King of Ruin's minions?! Find out in Expansion ScenarioChapter 4: Dragon's Dawn! Attack on The Science Fortress Lab!